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Domain Articles
How to Choose, Register or Transfer a Domain Name
Copyright 2002 Herman Drost
Every professional business should be keeping up with the demands and needs of
its customers, if it is to survive. One of the essential tools of any business
these days is to have a professional web site. This begins with choosing and
registering a domain name that will clearly identify and brand your business
online for many years to come, so you need to choose wisely.
How to choose a domain name 1. If you want your web site to have an added
advantage in the search engines, think of a domain name that includes keywords
visitors would search for in the main search engines.
2. Make a list of all the possible names that would suit your business (i.e.
isitebuild.com contains resources for building your own web site or getting one
built). Use www.nameboy.com for researching domain names. NameBoy will generate
domain names based on the keywords you enter. If the dotcom name you want is not
available, create a longer name that describes your business or use names that
include hyphens (i.e. ihost-websites.com)
3. If possible, keep your domain name short so it is easy to spell and easy to
remember. Take into account someone may remember the name but forget there is a
hyphen in it – you then miss out on those potential customers.
4. If the dotcom name is not available, try the other new abbreviations such as
.BIZ .US,.INFO, .TV. These are not as popular as .COM, however you may get
closer to the name you want.
How to register a domain name 1. Any company that sells domain names must be
registered and accredited with iCann - The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (http://www.icann.org). You can get a domain name for under
$10 from Godaddy.com. Read carefully what’s on their site as you go through
the registration process. It’s easy to inadvertently sign up for other
services you don’t need.
For a current list of companies that are accredited as registrars by iCann,
visit Internic (www.internic.com). Subscribe FREE to Marketing Tips Newsletter
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2. Register your domain name in your own name, not someone else’s. Sometimes
your host may do this for you. This could cause you problems in the future,
should you decide to transfer your domain to another hosting company.
3. Renewal - you have had your site on the Web for a year, sales are pouring in
when suddenly, your site disappears – it won’t show up anymore! What
happened? Well, you forgot to renew your domain name. Hopefully this will never
happen to you!
When you sign up for a new domain name, make sure your domain name registrar
will send a reminder when your domain name is about to expire.
4. When asked about DNS server (domain name system) or Name Server information,
insert your Primary Name Server and Secondary Name Server information – ask
your future Web Hosting service for this information, if you don’t have it
handy.
What is the DNS system? It is the computer action of changing domain names into
numeric Internet protocol (IP) numbers which enables computers to locate web
sites and e-mail.
If you haven’t chosen a Web Host, then park your domain name with your domain
name registrar (this is a temporary location to store your domain until you are
ready to have it hosted).
How to transfer a domain name. There may be several reasons why you would want
to transfer:
-Renewing Domain Names There is a good chance that you could save money on
domain name renewals by transferring them to a different registrar. Check out
the prices from different registrars at NewRegistrars.com.
Before renewing a domain name, make sure you know which registrar the domain
name is actually registered with. WhoIsQuery.com is the only WhoIs known that
handles the CORE registrars as well as the ICANN ones.
-You parked your domain name and have now found a Web Host to upload your site
to.
-You are not happy with the service or are paying too much for your current web
host and want to switch to another.
1. If you are transferring your domain name to another web host, download (copy)
all files to your computer from your old host. Sometimes files may be stored on
your host but not on your computer, so doing this will ensure you downloaded the
whole site.
Keep a copy of your files on the old host, while you transfer to another host,
so you won't experience any downtime of your web site.
2. Open a new hosting account.
3. Change the DNS (domain name system) or Name Server information on the current
domain name to the new hosting company name servers. You can find this
information by going to the domain name registrar (the place where you
registered your domain name).
Your domain will take some time (24-72 hours) to propagate over the Internet,
before it appears on the new hosting company servers.
4. Upload all files to the new host.
5. Amend and test your web site. Check that all files have been uploaded from
your computer and that your web site appears exactly as it did before.
6. Cancel the previous hosting account when you are satisfied with the transfer
of your domain name to the new host.
A Great Tip for registering several domain names. Since domain names are so
cheap these days (they used to cost $35/year), you can afford to own several
domains. Each domain can have its own web site. Most small sites use less than
5MB of hosting space, so you could host several sites for a small price.
What are the benefits of doing this? Linking each of these web sites together
and submitting them to the search engines will increase your sites search engine
rankings. It will also broaden the places visitors can access your business.
Generating a continuous traffic flow leads to more sales. You have now
implemented and solved one of your crucial marketing strategies.
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Low Cost Web
Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com.
You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
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